I said something to someone in the office today, that I think might be worth
sharing here. It's just an observation from my past life as a journalist, but
it feels germane.
In newsrooms, it is very very common for experienced senior editors to be curt
and gruff --- in general, but particularly with new news staff. It's a cliche
you see all the time in TV and movies -- e.g., the Lou Grant type character.
I think it's inherent to the work. Experienced editors have seen it all: they
are a little tired, a little jaded, a little cynical. They talk in shorthand
among each other, and they're impatient with newcomers. That's understandable
and it's forgiveable.
The trick is, I think, to create a healthy mix. Wikimedia needs experienced
editors who have good judgment and can recognize patterns and coach and guide
the inexperienced. It also needs a regular influx of new people who can bring
fresh perspectives and new insights, and relieve experienced people of grunt
work they're tired of doing. Good newsrooms have a healthy mix of both, and we
need that too.
I hear you Nathan, when you say you're loathe to expose new people to our
current culture -- I know our public outreach staff sometimes feel that way
too. But I think it's essential: we need to bring in new people and help them
get through their early days with us, in order to ensure an overall healthy
balance. We're a bit out of kilter now, but I think with some effort on
everybody's part, we can rebalance into good health.
Thanks,
Sue
-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan <nawr...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 22:46:44
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List<foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] How to make unstoppable petty complaint a
feature?
It's not just changes that draw petty, sarcastic and juvenile replies
for Wikipedians. We have a pervasive problem of burnout, wherein our
more experienced contributors became jaded and disillusioned and make
a practice of appalling behavior. Two recent cases in point... I don't
need to explain the Tanthalas situation more than just to mention it
as an example, but the second case is, I think, more serious. An
administrator replies to a plea for help from a new contributor, who
has uploaded his own work several times and tried to release it under
public domain. Rather than explain, the administrator uses what
appears to be his boilerplate response - snide, condescending, and
perfectly tailored to send this new contributor away with a bad taste
of the entire project. [1][2]
Unfortunately this type of interaction isn't even unusual. In some
respects it appears to be the norm, in fact, and there doesn't seem to
be any effective way of addressing this problem. I can no longer
recommend people to become involved in editing, because frankly I
refuse to subject friends and colleagues to the risk of this type of
treatment. Perhaps the Foundation should put some effort into this
issue before soliciting new participants who are likely to be shocked
at the editing culture.
Nathan
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Fastily#SYS_logo.png
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Sfan00_IMG#Fair_use
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